


Sweet Tooth

by Applesandbannas747



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25215946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesandbannas747/pseuds/Applesandbannas747
Summary: When brainstorming for the fencing team's fundraiser, Seiji's teammates come up with some truly terrible ideas, but, luckily for him, bake sales never go out of style.
Relationships: Nicholas Cox/Seiji Katayama
Comments: 26
Kudos: 115





	Sweet Tooth

“Wait a minute,” Harvard’s voice boomed as Nicholas and Eugene traipsed to the doors, Seiji not far behind them. “We need to come up with fundraising ideas.”

“But, Harvard, it was a long day,” Eugene griped.

“Can’t we do this tomorrow?” Nicholas asked, nodding along to Eugene’s point.

“That’s what you’ve been saying all week. Nobody leaves this room until we’ve come up with a plan of action.”

Sulkily, Eugene and Nicholas turned and slunk back to Harvard. He was situated by the whiteboard, markers at the ready. Obviously, he was serious about this. Seiji didn’t bother with protests. There was no use and it would only prolong this entire experience, so he put down his bag by the wall and joined the others.

“Anyone want to start us off?” Harvard asked.

“Kissing booth?” Eugene suggested. “Between Aiden and Seiji alone, we’d have funds to last us the whole year.”

“That’s unethical, unhygienic, and possibly illegal,” Seiji said with distaste, not relishing the idea of selling his kisses at all.

“Unethical, unhygienic, possibly illegal, and entirely hilarious,” Nicholas said, slapping a palm against Eugene’s.

“No kissing booths,” Harvard vetoed. Efficiently, he had a column on the whiteboard labeled _Things we are_ _NOT_ _doing,_ and kissing booth got neatly scribed underneath it.

“What about a cafe or something?” Nicholas asked.

“A cafe? How would that work?” Harvard prompted. Seiji thought it was an awful idea but he could admit that it was better than kissing booths so he didn’t begrudge Harvard for humoring Nicholas’s terrible idea to get away from Eugene’s even more terrible idea.

“I don’t know. But they do it in mangas all the time.”

Aiden snorted derisively. Seiji didn’t agree with Aiden in most things but, on this, he had to agree with the derisive snort.

“You know what else they do in manga? _Crossdressing_ cafes.”

“Hey, there’s an idea,” Eugene said.

“Don’t be stupid…” Aiden started, then, horribly, reconsidered. “Actually, that _could_ be fun. We could get matching maid costumes.”

“See? Manga knows best.”

“Shut up Nick, we all know you’re a weeb, no need to flex,” Eugene chortled. “Bet Bobby would help us, he’s a pro with a sewing machine.”

“You’re putting this in the bad idea column, aren’t you?” Seiji interrupted, the question meant for Harvard.

Harvard nodded in acknowledgment of Seiji’s concern, marker raised to the board. He wrote it down in the _Maybe_ column.

“Incentive for coming up with something better,” he told Seiji wickedly.

“Bobby loves makeovers,” Nicholas kept going as if Seiji hadn’t spoken at all. Seiji gave him a withering glare.

“You can’t even dress yourself properly as is,” he said. “I can’t imagine your fashion sense would be at all improved with skirts in the mix.”

“True, but _I’d_ look great in a maid costume,” Aiden cut in. They were really latching onto this maid cafe idea. Seiji had to steer them away from it before it was too late and he ended up in petticoats.

“What did you do last year?” Seiji asked.

“Bake sale,” Harvard offered with a shrug as if apologizing for the lack of creativity and originality.

“Why not just do that again?”

“Because it was me and Kally holding down the fort and Tanner tearing it down in his enthusiasm.”

“Tanner’s enthusiasm won’t be a problem this year,” Seiji pointed out, earning sharp looks from both boys that had called Tanner a teammate last year. “I’ll help. Nicholas will too.”

“You can’t volunteer me!”

“Yes, I can.”

“I’m not bad in the kitchen,” Eugene admitted. He was Seiji’s new favorite teammate.

“If I don’t get to dress up, I want cupcakes,” Aiden grouched.

“Nicholas, objections?” Harvard asked.

“I guess not.”

“Then it’s decided. We’ll have a bake sale.”

* * *

“So,” Nicholas said three days later in the home economics kitchen, “you have a sweet tooth.”

Seiji froze, glanced over at Nicholas. But he couldn’t know. Seiji hadn’t even touched a sundae since coming to Kings Row.

“What would ever give you that impression?” Seiji asked with as much contempt as he could manage.

“Because you wanted a bake sale. For the sweets, right?”

“For the convenience,” Seiji corrected.

“What? You don’t think you could pull off the French maid look?”

“Don’t imagine it,” Seiji warned, recognizing Nicholas’s contemplative face.

“Too late. For the record, I think you’d look pretty rockin’ from the neck down.”

“I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”

“Your face would ruin it, though.”

 _“Your_ face is ruining my life.” It was a terrible comeback and Seiji deserved the laughter he got for it. But he was feeling strangely warm and Nicholas wasn’t helping. He never helped. “There are plenty of kitchen units for us each to have our own, why did Harvard insist on teaming us up?”

“Maybe he doesn’t trust you with the oven?”

“He shouldn’t trust me with you,” Seiji muttered darkly under his breath.

Nicholas took the cake batter Seiji had been mixing and poured it messily into the cupcake tins.

“I didn’t know you found me so irresistible,” Nicholas beamed, turning a wink over his shoulder.

“Must you twist everything I say?”

“Yeah. It’s the only way you ever say anything nice to me.”

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“Doing what wrong? Making you be nice to me? If you have any suggestions, I’m open to them—,”

“You’re pouring in the batter unevenly. And dripping it all over the place. Give that to me.”

“Control freak.” But Nicholas relented and let Seiji take the bowl back.

“And if you want me to be nicer to you, you should try being less annoying,” Seiji added because he was still in a bad mood from the maid comment.

“Less annoying,” Nicholas said slowly, rolling it over in his puny mind. “But that’s like eighty percent of my personality. How about, instead, you decided to find it charming?”

Seiji scoffed. No more was needed to communicate his feelings on the matter.

“Put those in the oven,” Seiji said when he finished pouring out their batter. “I’m going to start on the brownies now.”

Nicholas managed to slide the cupcakes into the oven without any great disaster, but then he came to hover over Seiji.

“I want to mix it,” he complained not much later. “You’ve gotten to do all the mixing.”

“This isn’t preschool, we’re not passing around the bowl so everyone gets a turn. It’s not a fun treat to mix brownies, grow up.”

“If it’s not fun then why are you hogging it?”

“You’d leave chunks in it.” Seiji slowly sifted some more dry ingredients into the bowl and took care to mix it thoroughly.

“I can do it,” Nicholas insisted, grabbing for the bowl.

Seiji didn’t let go.

Nicholas yanked.

Seiji yanked back, hard and with his entire body.

The bowl slid free from Nicholas’s fingers but with the counter-balance suddenly gone, Seiji was left flailing backward until Nicholas caught him.

“Don’t—!” Seiji gasped.

But it was too late, the incomplete brownie batter went sloshing out of the bowl, all over Nicholas and some splashing back onto Seiji as well.

“Look what you’ve done now,” Seiji scathed, yanking out of Nicholas’s grasp and slamming the empty bowl into the sink with an angry _clang_.

“Me?” Nicholas asked, voice raised. “You’re the one that wouldn’t let me help! _And_ I saved you!”

“You made a mess and wasted ingredients and my time, that’s what you did. Save me? From what? A fall three feet backward into a counter?”

“Onto a stove,” Nicholas corrected.

Seiji glanced to the stovetop, live and laden with a double broiler with chocolate for the frosting. Seiji replayed the scene in his mind and found that Nicholas was right; he’d been standing in front of the stove when he’d stumbled. If Nicholas hadn’t caught him, he would have reached back with his free hand to catch himself. His right hand. His _fencing_ hand.

The thought of losing mobility to burns made his stomach lurch.

“Oh,” he said faintly. “Thank you.”

Nicholas stared at him strangely. Seiji expected his face to break into a triumphant smile but it didn’t. Nicholas ducked his head and rubbed his hand against the short hair at the nape of his neck.

“Yeah. You’re welcome,” he mumbled. Seiji’s stomach lurched again.

“You two are going to be the death of me,” Harvard said, invading on the strange moment with loud and evident exasperation.

* * *

The bake sale was set to go all afternoon. Seiji would have preferred fencing over manning their little booth from lunch until dinner, but he much preferred this to kissing booths and maid cafes.

To keep the cupcakes fresh, they only had around a dozen out and frosted at any one time, which meant they had a grand procession for getting out cupcakes, frosting them, decorating them, setting them out, and selling them. With Aiden in charge of sales, they were taking in enough customers to keep them all busy. A little too busy, honestly.

“How’s it going?” Kally asked. He’d purchased two cupcakes during lunch but he was back now, Tanner not far behind him and looking like he’d rolled out of bed this morning and not bothered to change.

“Business is good,” Harvard replied. “Can’t complain.”

“I can,” Nicholas said beside Seiji, working on frosting a woefully droopy cupcake. “We’re drowning, Kally. In frosting.”

“And cash,” Eugene put in.

“Do you want some help? Tanner and I don’t have any plans for the day,” Kally offered kindly.

Seiji expected Harvard to politely decline. Kally might have been helpful, but he’d said himself that Tanner’s exuberance could bring down the entire operation as collateral.

“That would be great,” Harvard said instead, smile broad and genuine.

“Yes!” Aiden agreed. “Get in here and get to work, I’m being abused. The mean little invaders are actually making me do work,” he pouted, wrapping arms around Kally’s waist and receiving a sympathetic pat on the head. Tanner, Seiji noticed, grabbed Kally’s arm and pulled him into the booth and out of Aiden’s hold.

It was crowded and louder than ever with the two extra bodies, but Harvard and Aiden seemed happy to have their friends helping.

Seiji didn’t mind Tanner or Kally, but when they were stationed next to him, displacing Nicholas, he felt a little put off. It was only because he was more used to Nicholas than anyone else. But he was aware of the way Tanner and Kally’s burble of conversation blocked out Nicholas’s comments and objectively terrible jokes. He and Eugene seemed to be having a good time.

“You’re going to crush that cupcake,” Tanner said. It took Seiji a moment to realize Tanner was talking to him. He looked down at his cupcake. It did look a little crumpled, so he loosened his hold.

“You’re hardly one to talk,” Seiji quipped, in a bad mood for unnamable reasons. “You’ve consumed more cupcakes than you’ve successfully decorated.”

“Not true!” Tanner objected. He had his unruly hair pulled into pigtails on top of his head with _Hello Kitty_ bobbles on the bands and they bounced ridiculously at Seiji as Tanner waved a plastic butter knife at him. “I’ve successfully decorated every cupcake I’ve eaten.”

“Tanner,” Kally said, putting a hand on Tanner’s flailing arm. “It’s rude to brandish knives at people.”

Kally had his hair pulled back with _Hello Kitty_ clips to match Tanner’s ties. Did they just have those on hand? Who carried around matching hair accessories? Seiji decided not to worry about it. But he _did_ worry at Tanner’s shout of anguish. Seiji almost asked what was wrong before he noticed that the dollop of frosting had fallen off Tanner’s knife and onto his bright green shirt.

“This is my favorite shirt,” he moaned.

“You’ve got about six more of them, Tan, it’s nothing to get worked up over,” Kally told him soothingly.

“Why do you even need those shirts, anyway?” Seiji asked peevishly. He didn’t appreciate having people yell in his ear, especially for something so stupid. “It’s not as if the entire school has any doubt at all that you’re Kally’s boyfriend.”

Seiji didn’t notice right away that the chatter of the bake sale booth had died down and he was the only one still working on frosting.

“What does my shirt have to do with that?” Tanner asked.

“What do you mean? _Kally’s number one._ As if anyone could mistake that you’re not Kally’s number one.”

Tanner kept blinking at him like a dumb, bright orange fish.

Eugene started laughing, breaking the silence.

“Seiji, bud, that apostrophe isn’t meant to be possessive. But _damn_ is it accurate!” He cackled.

Seiji looked again at Tanner’s atrocious shirt. Kally’s number one. Kally _is_ number one.

“Oh.” The others were laughing now too and Seiji felt himself heating for this blunder. “I shouldn’t have assumed, my apologies.”

“That’s all right,” Kally smiled warmly at him. His laughter had been the most subdued of the group’s. “You’re not wrong, necessarily. But don’t give Tanner any ideas, he might go order a box of _Kally’s boyfriend_ shirts next.”

“Way to go, Seiji,” Aiden whooped, surprising Seiji greatly. “Harvard, you owe me twenty bucks, I _told_ you they were dating.”

Neither Kally nor Tanner looked offended to be the subjects of a bet, and Kally even patted Harvard’s back consolingly.

“With Tanner,” he said, “it can be hard to tell what’s romance and what’s just…Tanner being Tanner.”

“I should have known better,” Harvard sighed in an exaggerated manner, forking over the money.

“Hey, you guys?” Nicholas said, holding up a cupcake. “We’re out of frosting.”

“Thanks for volunteering to go make us some more,” Harvard said with a smile. “And take Seiji with you, repentance for goofing off yesterday and missing half the baking fun times.”

“Think that’s a good idea, Cap?” Eugene asked.

“I’m sure they can manage not to burn the place down. What do you two think?”

Reluctantly, they both agreed that they could handle it.

* * *

“What flavor frosting should we make?” Nicholas asked, pulling out butter and confectioners’ sugar.

“Is that even a question? Chocolate.”

“I thought you must like chocolate.” Nicholas looked like he was pleased with himself for some reason. “You made a beeline for the chocolate chips yesterday too.”

“Because it goes well with yellow cake,” Seiji huffed. “And why ask if you already knew the answer?”

“Because I wanted to hear you admit it.”

“Knowing chocolate makes the best frosting isn’t a deep confession.”

“From you it is.”

Seiji decided not to answer, annoyed at Nicholas for acting like he’d just found something of value out about Seiji. He hadn’t. Liking chocolate was a far cry from liking triple fudge sundaes. More generalized and less specific— and liking sweets was a stupid secret anyway, but Nicholas looked infuriatingly smug to have dug this up about him. Not that he could prove it. Seiji wouldn’t admit to it.

Nicholas set the Cuisinart stand mixer on the counter heavily and started making a mess of butter and vanilla and clouds of sugar. Seiji had learned his lesson about trying to take Nicholas away from his mixing so he let him have at it, ignoring him in favor of melting down chocolate and butter. They worked together reasonably well, no bickering or tug-of-war. No talking or laughing either. But Seiji wasn’t a ‘talking and laughing’ sort of person.

“I can’t believe you outed Kally and Tanner,” Nicholas said eventually. _He_ was a ‘talking and laughing’ sort of person.

“I thought they were rather blatant about their relationship. I admit that I misinterpreted the specific meaning of the shirt but can I really be blamed? That shirt is so bright it burns my eyes to look at long enough to comprehend what’s written on it.”

Nicholas laughed. Seiji liked that he was able to make Nicholas laugh, even if he wasn’t a ‘talking and laughing’ sort of person like Eugene or Aiden or any of the rest of them.

“Yeah, that shirt is _loud._ In a lot of ways, really. Hey, is that chocolate ready?”

“Yes, move out of the way, I’m taking it off the burner.”

Nicholas stepped back and watched as Seiji carefully and slowly poured in the chocolate so as not to melt the buttercream.

“I think it needs more chocolate,” Nicholas said, so close that his words tickled Seiji’s ear and Seiji was made suddenly aware of the body crowded in close against his back, peering over his shoulder.

On reflex, he jerked his elbow back, landing a blow to Nicholas’s gut. Nicholas expelled a heavy breath. Seiji spun around, careful not to let the still-hot pan near either of them.

“I’m sorry,” Seiji said, wincing as Nicholas doubled over to clutch his stomach. “You startled me.”

“I think you killed me with your freakishly painful elbow jab.”

“That’s being a touch dramatic, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t think—wait. You just said sorry and meant it. That’s basically the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, holy shit. I must be in heaven with some angel version of Seiji because—,”

“I’ll melt some more chocolate,” Seiji cut in tersely, striding past Nicholas. “And you didn’t let me finish. I meant to say I’m sorry I didn’t elbow you harder.”

Nicholas laughed. “That’s more like it!”

The frosting shaped up nicely with the next batch of chocolate and Nicholas knew enough to stay out of Seiji’s personal space this time. But he didn’t know enough to keep his paws out of the mixing bowl the second Seiji turned it off. He swatted Nicholas’s hand hard but it still escaped with a finger full of chocolate buttercream.

“Nicholas! That’s disgusting, at least use a spoon. And you had better wash your hands really well after you lick that off—mmmph!”

“What do you think?” Nicholas asked after he’d finished smearing his chocolatey fingers across Seiji’s lips.

Seiji was too shocked by the sheer nerve of Nicholas Cox to react for a long moment. He looked so smug, Seiji couldn’t stand it.

“You tell me,” he said with stiff mouth and narrowed eyes.

“I can’t, I sacrificed all my frosting.”

“I can help with that.”

Seiji enjoyed the startled disbelief on Nicholas’s face as he advanced and exacted his revenge by getting his sticky lips all over Nicholas’s. But, by the way Nicholas responded, it wasn’t much of a revenge.

When Nicholas’s tongue probed into his mouth, it brought in the sweet confection with it, flavoring their kiss with chocolate. Seiji let the chocolate melt on his tongue and let himself melt into the kiss, let himself enjoy it and admit that he wanted it. And, irritating as Nicholas was, Seiji let himself admit that he wanted him too.

Nicholas’s hand cupped his cheek and Seiji gasped, jerked away, caught the hand and pressed it hard to his cheek so it couldn’t move even an inch.

“If you get chocolate in my hair,” he said severely, “you are _never_ kissing me again.”

“And if I don’t get chocolate in your hair?”

“Then there’s hope for you yet.”

“Can I get _Seiji’s boyfriend_ shirts?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Didn’t think so. Can I have the possessive apostrophe, then? _Seiji’s._ What do you think?”

“If you really want it.” Seiji managed to say it flatly, but he knew his face was betraying him, could feel it reddening up magnificently. He hadn’t expected Nicholas to be so forward. He hadn’t really expected Nicholas to be so receptive at all.

“I do,” Nicholas said, arm tightening around his waist. “I’ve always wanted you.”

“I thought I wasn’t nice to you?”

“I guess I don’t really care.”

Nicholas dove right in with another kiss, more sure than the last one had been, more demanding. Seiji leaned into it and let Nicholas have his way, not bothering to hide how much he liked it. But when Seiji pulled Nicholas hard into him as he backed up against a counter coated in confectioners’ sugar, Nicholas pulled back with an _oh!_

“Is this because I saved you from burns?” He asked, but he didn’t make any move to disentangle from Seiji. In fact, he seemed perfectly happy to hold him against the counter.

“No,” Seiji snapped. But his face was betraying him again. “Not all the way. I’ve wanted to try— _this_ since yesterday but not just because you saved me from a severe and potentially career-damaging injury. It’s because you were sweet about it.”

Nicholas stared at him in astonishment, then kissed him extravagantly on the nose, holding his face too close for any hope of escape.

“I knew you had a sweet tooth!”

**Author's Note:**

> the fact that I wrote two fics, months apart, that BOTH somehow ended up including fundraising shenanigans and one of Tanner's ridiculous Kally t-shirts is hilarious to me because I didn't even notice until basically just now. I've only got one brain cell, guys, sometimes it produces the same idea twice and there's just nothing for it XD it also sometimes misinterprets apostrophes for a whole ass year ~~am i the only one who lowkey read Tanner's shirt wrong for a hot minute even though OBVIOUSLY it makes more sense as a contraction??? yeah? okay...~~
> 
> I hope this fluff satisfied your sweet tooth 💜


End file.
